Team:Macquarie Australia

Our Project

Chlorophyll is a core component in the process of photosynthesis. As a pigment, it harvests light and plays a primary role in the excitation transfer of energy (Eichwurzel, Stiel et al. 2000), which is vital for plant reproduction and survival (Uliana, Pires et al. 2014). The chlorophyll biochemical pathway is an oxygenic photosynthetic process that oxidizes water to produce hydrogen ions. Thirteen genes govern the five-step pathway and each has a specific role.

The 2014 Macquarie University iGEM team is continuing the work of the 2013 team to synthetically construct the chlorophyll biochemical pathway in E.coli using synthetic Biobricks from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The Biobricks from 2013 have been made using Gibson Assembly. Our aim for 2014 is to improve the Biobricks using synthetic techniques, which will be assembled into three functional operons and expressed in E.coli competent cells.